ENTERTAINMENT
February 11, 2014 | By Steven Zeitchik
No athlete likes chaos, but if you're a certain kind of TV viewer, a competition in disarray is the best kind of competition of all. In other words, you probably enjoy watching speed skating. Short track's alternate name might as well be Chaos on Ice (not to be confused with Chess on Ice, a.k.a. curling). But good old-fashioned long-track can be chaotic too, especially if it's the shortest of long tracks, the 500 meters. That sport of two long-limbed, full-bodied synthetic outfits on an oval, and screaming fans in orange, saw its own randomness on Monday, as a trio of Dutch men won the three medals, going 1-2-3 in the competition.
SPORTS
February 19, 2010 | By Brian Hamilton
There is no medal. But there is a certificate. That much Jennifer Rodriguez earned after a top-eight finish in the women's 1,000-meter speedskating event Thursday -- a trophy with print, not glint. So there is a congratulatory certificate. There is optimism about Rodriguez's 1,500-meter race Sunday. There is a growing hope for the next Olympic cycle. But there are no medals. So there is a lot of relative thinking regarding the U.S. women's speedskating team's performance in these Winter Games.
SPORTS
February 18, 2010 | By Brian Hamiilton
Not unusually, Shani Davis spent most of Wednesday alone in his room, except for a morning jog. He studied his journals and race plan. Again he endeavored to do what no one had. Again he internalized any pressures and doubts, trusting only himself to escape them. Later, gliding along the Richmond Olympic Oval in the minutes before the 1,000-meter race that could redefine his grip on history, he was once more effectively alone, as the Chicago native likes it and unapologetically means it to be. Hands on hips, Davis snapped off a yawn.
SPORTS
February 17, 2010 | By Brian Hamilton
Early Tuesday morning under a sunny sky, Shani Davis hopped a fence across the street from the Richmond Olympic Oval, striding inside for the required round of drug testing while once again on the eve of history. No man has won two gold medals in the 1,000-meter long-track speedskating event, and Wednesday, Davis has the chance to do just that. But there is an ancillary challenge too, in the uncomfortable irony that the staunchly independent, self-professed solo entity will skate to rescue a team.
SPORTS
February 16, 2010 | By Brian Hamilton
Jen Rodriguez elected to march and soak in the majesty and malfunction of the opening ceremony for the first time since 1998. She veered away from training to visit the Nike House. She made an excursion to the Oakley House. Instead of drowning herself in preparation and rigid routine, the speedskating veteran of four Winter Games opened her eyes and her schedule to these sidelights for, in effect, one reason. "I have zero expectations," a chipper Rodriguez said Monday. She participated in her first Olympics in 1998, won bronze medals in 2002 and then retired from the sport for two years after 2006, and now returns to the Winter Games blithely unwound.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 3, 2009 | Associated Press
Of the many countries participating at the Vancouver Olympics in February, add Colbert Nation to the list. On Monday's "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert announced that his show had become the primary sponsor of the U.S. speed skating team. The team's largest annual cash sponsor, DSB Bank NV, left it in the lurch after declaring bankruptcy in October. The name "Colbert Nation" -- the catchall for the legion of ardent fans of the satirical Comedy Central program -- will be emblazoned on the team's uniforms.